Rackspace Announces Agreement to Acquire Datapipe

SAN ANTONIO – Sept. 11, 2017 – Rackspace® today announced that it signed an agreement to acquire Datapipe, one of the world’s leading providers of managed services across public and private clouds, managed hosting and colocation. This acquisition, the largest in Rackspace history, brings important new capabilities to Rackspace and will enable the company to better serve customers of all kinds, globally and at scale.

According to industry surveys, the vast majority of companies operate across three or more clouds today, and will do so for years to come [1]. Customers have been asking Rackspace to rapidly expand its abilities in managing multiple clouds at scale, and with the acquisition of Datapipe, Rackspace will be able to meet this growing demand.

Among the new capabilities that Datapipe will bring to Rackspace are:

Experience serving high-profile public sector customers, including the U.S. Departments of Defense, Energy, and Treasury, as well as the U.K. Cabinet Office, Ministry of Justice, and Department of Transport

Professional services, software and tooling that will help better serve enterprise customers

Data centers and offices in key markets where Rackspace today has little or no presence, including the West Coast of the U.S., Brazil, mainland China, and Russia

Traditional colocation services across four continents, to reduce cost and risk for customers moving applications out of their corporate data centers

Managed services on the Alibaba Cloud (the largest in China)

By the same token, Rackspace brings new capabilities to Datapipe customers, including:

Deep experience in Microsoft, VMware, and OpenStack private clouds, including new service offerings for Azure Stack and VMware Cloud on AWS

Managed Google Cloud Platform

Managed services for enterprise applications, including those in the Oracle and SAP ecosystems, and those used in digital marketing and ecommerce

“Our customers are looking for help as they spread their applications across public and private clouds, managed hosting, and colocation, depending on the blend of performance, agility, control, security, and cost-efficiency they’re seeking,” said Joe Eazor, CEO of Rackspace. “With the acquisition of Datapipe, we’re very pleased to expand the multi-cloud managed services we provide our customers, while also opening doors to new opportunities across the globe.”

Founded in 2000, Datapipe is a pioneer in managed public cloud services. It is a growing and profitable business, based in Jersey City, N.J., with 825 employees and 29 data centers in nine countries. Datapipe serves the complex needs of many large enterprises, including Johnson & Johnson, McDonalds and Rubbermaid.

“We are very proud of the business we have built and the innovations and successful customer outcomes we have been recognized for, and the future of Datapipe will be even brighter in combination with Rackspace,” said Robb Allen, founder and CEO of Datapipe. “Customers need guidance using public cloud infrastructure from Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. They also need help navigating the use of private clouds, managed hosting and colocation solutions, often in combination, as they move critical applications out of their corporate data centers. The combination of complementary capabilities and resources from both of our companies will create the world’s leading provider of multi-cloud managed services.”

Rackspace and Datapipe are remarkably similar. Both companies have been positioned as leaders in the Gartner Magic Quadrant assessments of providers of managed cloud services, and in industry rankings by Forrester and other leading analyst firms. Both companies are known for their technical expertise and managed services across multiple clouds, exceptional customer service, profitable growth, and engaged workplace cultures. Rackspace intends to build on the industry leadership the two companies have established in reliability and support, to create a new level of end-to-end customer experience.

Pending regulatory approvals, Rackspace’s acquisition of Datapipe is expected to close in Q4 2017. Rackspace will develop a comprehensive integration plan and will take great care to maintain and enhance the exceptional customer outcomes that both companies are known for. Rackspace looks forward to welcoming the talented employees from Datapipe.

Both companies are privately held, with Rackspace owned by affiliates of certain funds of Apollo Global Management, LLC and certain co-investors. The majority owner of Datapipe, Abry Partners, will receive equity in Rackspace. Brian St. Jean, Partner at Abry, described this transaction as “a measure of our confidence in the bright future of Rackspace when combined with Datapipe.” No additional terms or details of the transaction will be publicly disclosed.

Citigroup is acting as sole financial advisor to Rackspace in the transaction and has committed to provide incremental Senior Secured Credit Facilities, which will be used in part to refinance Datapipe’s existing indebtedness and pay related fees and expenses. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is acting as legal advisor to Rackspace.

Barclays and DH Capital are acting as financial advisors in the transaction to Datapipe. DLA Piper LLP is acting as legal advisor to Datapipe.

About Rackspace

Rackspace, the leading multi-cloud managed services company, helps businesses tap the power of cloud computing without the complexity and cost of managing it all on their own. Rackspace engineers deliver specialized expertise, easy-to-use tools, and Fanatical Support® for leading technologies including AWS, Google, Microsoft, OpenStack, Oracle, SAP and VMware. The company serves customers in 150 countries, including more than half of the FORTUNE 100. Rackspace was named a leader in the 2017 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Public Cloud Infrastructure Managed Service Providers, Worldwide and has been honored by Fortune, Forbes, and others as one of the best companies to work for. Learn more at www.rackspace.com.

About Datapipe

A next generation MSP, Datapipe is recognized as the pioneer of managed services for public cloud platforms. Datapipe has unique expertise in architecting, migrating, managing and securing public cloud, private cloud, hybrid IT and traditional IT. The world’s most trusted brands partner with Datapipe to optimize mission-critical and day-to-day enterprise IT operations, enabling them to transform, innovate, and scale. Backed by a global team of experienced professionals and world-class interconnected data centers, Datapipe provides comprehensive cloud, compliance, security, governance, automation and DevOps solutions. Gartner named Datapipe a leader in the 2017 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Public Cloud Infrastructure Managed Service Providers, Worldwide.

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Brandon Brunson is the U.S. public relations manager at Rackspace. He previously spent nine years at Porter Novelli, a public relations agency in Austin, where he managed PR campaigns for clients within the technology, financial services and consumer goods industries. In his free time, Brandon enjoys exercising, practicing Filipino martial arts, watching football and traveling. He holds a BA in public relations from The University of Texas at Austin.